Accordion



March 11, 1952 Ff. R. RlEscHicK ACCORDION Original Filed June 10, 1947 IN VEN T 0R.

BY C@ 4 7 70E/'Affif Patented Mar. 11, 1952 ACCORDION Richard R. Rieschick, New York, N. Y.

Original application June 10, 1947, Serial No. 753,683. Divided and this application September 11, 1948, Serial No. 48,861

1 Claim. l This invention relates to accordions.

More particularly the invention consists of keys of novel shape having a metallic rib integral with the action and a plastic covering, the covering having flanges movable in spaces formed by a plurality of guide ribs, the combination with a white accordion key consisting of a single metallic member extending from tip to tip in a plane, having a key leg and a valve leg forming an obtuse angle with each other, and having an enlarged portion in the same plane with the key leg and extending downwardly from the same, and having a pivot opening therein, of a one piece plastic outer enclosure for the key leg, having parallel walls extending over said key leg at both sides thereof throughout the entire length and width thereof and over said enlarged portion, each wall having a pivot opening in registration with the pivot opening in the enlarged portion, and said enclosure having a flat finger contacting plate extending over said key leg the length thereof and laterally over said key leg embracing walls, and laterally beyond both sides of said walls, and at its margins downwardly to form flanges of the plate and extending forwardly at the front end of the key leg, whereby the flat metallic key leg is encased by said enclosure and limited in its movement by the front flange and by a pivot shaft passing through the registering holes, and the front downwardly exu tending flanges of adjacent keys protect the fingers of the player when depressing a key.

The invention will be more fully described, an embodiment thereof shown in the drawings, and

the invention will be nally pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a vertical transverse section of part of an accordion showing theapplication of the improvements thereto.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken on line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section showing a black key adjacent the white key shown in Fig. 1, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a white key.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the various views.

Referring to the drawings, the improved accordion consists essentially of three parts, A, B and C.

The upper part B (see Fig. 1) consists of a body portion 2| open at its lower end of a suitable height, extending circumferentially and of a shape of general rectangular character with rounded corner portions. Within this body portion 2|, and at its upper end, there is provided a membrane 22 of suitable plastic material, preferably transparent, which has peripheral ilanges 23, the size of this flanged membrane being such as to t within the body portion 2| to abut against shoulder 24 and 24a of the body portion 2|, with the outer surfaces of the ilanges 23 closely hugging the inner surface of the body portion 2|, and preferably held by acetone. To the lower side of the membrane 22, a plurality of casings 25 are secured, which have reeds 26, and which communicate with opening 28 in the membrane 22. These reeds are well known and are not described in detail, attention being called to the simplicity of. the casings 25, also made of suitable light weight material. Thus, the membrane 22 supports the casings 25, and the removal of the membrane 22 from the body portion of casing 2|, removes the casings 25, and vice versa the insertion of the membrane 22 inserts the oasings 25. The upper part of the body portion 1 2i curves over to the wall 24h. A cover 30 of grill form is suitably attached by screws or rivets 3| to the wall 24h. The cover 3U has in the embodiment shown in Fig. l, a plurality of openings 30a (Fig. 1). The rear ends of the wall 24h and the cover 30 terminate short of the rear of the body portion 2|. Above the shoulder 24a, the body portion 2| extends upwardly as shown by the extension 32 having an inclined surface 33. There is a space between the rear of the cover 30 and the extension 32 and through this a detachable keyboard 35 is inserted, and when inserted it is secured to the body portion 22 by screwbolts 36, having nuts 37. The removability of the nuts 31, and bolts 36, enables the keyboard 35 to be removed, and a different one replaced therein.

Thus, means are provided for an interchangeable keyboard. The keyboard 35 consists of a back plate 38 having marginal flanges 39 and 39a, which flanges 39 and 39a are parallel with each other, and support a pivot rod 39h for the white and black keys 4U, 40a. The back plate 38 has an inwardly extending flange 4|, the outer surface of which is provided with a felt layer 42a. Bellows 20 have an open end secured by suitable parallel flanges 44, spaced from each other to allow for the entrance of one end of a metal strengthening bar 45, which extends forward to forn an extension 45a to rest below the ange 4 l, and to act as a stop device, when the key 40 and consequently the bar 45 is relieved of nger pressure. A spring 46 has one end 41 press against the bottom of the bar 45. This end 41 is bent to enter a hole in the bottom of the bar 45. The spring 46 is then coiled one turn to form a coil 49, and its other free end 50 presses against the back plate 38. The white key operation is shown in Fig. 1, and the black key operation is shown in Fig. 4. The back plate 38 has an abutment 5I, with a felt covering 52 to serve the same purpose for the black keys 40a as the flange 4I and its felt covering 42a serves for the white keys, namely, to dampen the shock, when the keys are pressed by the pressure of the fingers. The spring 46 for the black keys is shorter than the spring 46 for the white keys. The spring cannot fall out of its nest' accidentally.

The back plate 38 has a plurality of parallel guide ribs 39a forming spaces for the movement ofthe keys, as shown for the black keys 40a in Fig. 3. The anges 43 and 44 of the white keys 40 (Fig. 2) do not enter the spaces between the guide ribs 38a, as such guide ribs 38a terminate about where the reference character 41 appears in Fig. l.

Each white key 40 and each black key 40a is pivoted on the rod 39h, and each has an action member 55, to the free end of which a valve '55 is secured as shown in Fig. l. The member 55 is integral with the bar 45.

When this cover 30 is removed, the keyboard 35, with all the keys and actions, may be removed, an another substituted, the bolts 3B and nuts 31 being, of course, removed and replaced.

The part A and the part B are joined by inserting the body portion 2l of part B into the space between the flanges of part A, and then fastening the parts togetherby screws 64 (Fig. 5). A similar connection is provided in order to join part A to part C (Fig. 5), where the flanges IBa and I1a hold by means of screws 64a, the marginal wall 65 of the part C. Thereby a basic housing is provided.

This is a divisional application to my pending application Serial No. 753,683, led June 10, 1947, for Accordions.

I Wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

I claim:

In an accordion, the combination with a white accordion key consisting of a single metallic member extending from tip to tip in a plane, having a key leg and a valve leg forming an obtuse angle with each other, and having an enlarged portion in the same plane with the key leg and extending downwardly from the same, and having a pivot opening therein, of a one piece plastic outer enclosure for the key leg, having parallel walls extending over said key leg at both sides thereof throughout the entire length and width thereof and over said enlarged portion, each wall having a pivot opening in registrationwith the pivot opening in the enlarged portion', and said enclosure having a flat nger contacting plate extending over said key leg the length thereof and laterally over said key leg embracing walls, and laterally beyond both sides of said walls, andat its margins downwardly to form flanges of the plate and extending forwardly at the front end of the key leg, whereby the flat metallic key leg is encased by said enclosure and limited in its movement by the front ange and by a pivot shaft passing through the registering holes, and the front downwardly extending flanges of adjacent keys protect the iingers of the player when depressing a key.

RICHARD R. RIESCHICK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent: l Y

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,784,469 Soprani Dec. 9, 1930 1,904,768 R-ieschick Apr. 18, 1933 2,246,371 Lindeberg June 17, 1941 2,250,131 Miller July 22, 1941 2,266,856- Farny Dec. 23, 1941 

